Once Upon A Time
by Lalikaa
Summary: Winry loves to be read to by her mother. A manga!verse oneshot featuring young Winry, then a time skip to mom Winry. EdxWin. Please enjoy!


_This was written for fma_ladyfest over on Livejournal. You requested a few prompts, and in turn you would receive a few prompts you could choose from to fill. The prompt I received was "Winry and Sara Rockbell- fairy tales and dress-up". I love the idea of young Winry, so I ran with it._

_There is also some EdxWin at the end. Also, Wikipedia and several other FMA fans tell me that Winry's fathers' name is Urey, so that's how I have it in the fic._

_Please enjoy!_

* * *

"Mommy, Mommy, read me a story!" The four-year-old little girl bounced up and down on her heels, holding a rather large, rather worn storybook.

Sara smiled. "Alright, Winry, I will. But first you have to brush your teeth and put your pajamas on."

"OK!" Winry tromped up the stairs to do as her mother instructed. Urey came out from the kitchen, holding two mugs of coffee. "Here you are, dear," he said, handing her one.

Sara took it, taking a sip. "When are we going to tell her?"

Urey sighed, not looking up from his coffee. His wife had been bringing this up a lot lately, ever since he had received the summons. "We'll tell her this weekend. Promise."

"I just- she's only four. How are we going to make her understand that we're leaving her?"

"It'll only be for a little while. This skirmish can't last too much longer. Sooner or later our government will have to realize how foolish it is and pull out. But it's my duty to serve our country. I can't just dismiss a summons. But you could still stay, I've told you- "

"And I've told you, I'm coming with you. You're not going alone. It's just that I'm just going to miss our baby girl." She leaned against his shoulder.

"Mom will take really good care of Winry," Urey assured her.

Sara offered a smile. "I know. But I'm still going to miss her."

"Me too."

"Mooooommmmmmy!" Winry called from the top of the stairs. "Mommy, I'm all ready!"

"Coming, sweetie!" Sara handed her husband her coffee mug and climbed the stairs. A very eager Winry lead her to her room.

"Honey, you know those aren't your pajamas, right?" Sara said, trying to hide a smile at Winry's outfit. She was wearing one of the play dresses Pinako had sewed for her along with a plastic pink crown on which various fake jewels had been glued and rainbow polka-dotted stockings. She was also wearing a multitude of colorful beaded necklaces she had made herself.

"I'm a princess! Princess Winry!" The child said, giggling.

Sara laughed. "Of course you are! And I'm Queen Mommy."

Winry grinned, appeased her mother was playing along.

"You can't be a queen, Mommy!" She reprimanded. "You don't have a crown!" She rushed over to her toy box, rummaging in it before pulling out another plastic crown, this one painted gold. She carefully placed it on her mother's head.

"There. Now you're a queen."

"Alright, Princess Winry. Which story would you like me to read you tonight?"

"Actually, I'm going to read the story tonight," Winry corrected with all the authority of a four-year-old.

Sara smiled, sitting down on Winry's bed. Her daughter could recognize a few words, sure, and she knew most of the alphabet, but she couldn't quite read by herself yet.

Winry sat herself comfortably in her mother's lap and opened the storybook. It was the kind of book with a number of different fairy tales in it, each beautifully illustrated. It had been Sara's when she was a young girl.

"OK," Winry said, opening the book to a random page. "Once upon a time, there was a really smart and pretty princess," she 'read'.

"The princess' name was Winry, and she had a lot of friends and… OK, your turn, Mommy!" Winry seemed to have run out of ideas for her story.

"…and she had two parents who loved her very much. But one day her mom and dad, the queen and king, had to leave, so Princess Winry had to stay with her royal grandma."

"Did she get to stay up late and eat lots of sweets?" Winry asked earnestly.

Sara shook her head, smiling. "No, the royal grandma would never allow such behavior by a princess!"

"But what if it was Princess Winry's birthday?"

"Then she could eat all the sweets she wanted!"

Winry giggled. But then she turned around. "But- but what if a dragon was attacking the castle while the king and queen were gone?"

"Then…" Sara said, stalling in pretend thought. "Ed and Al, the royal knights, would have to help the princess defeat the dragon."

"But they would only help," Winry clarified. "Princess Winry would be the one who actually killed it, right?"

"Right, because the princess is a very brave girl. And she has to make sure Knight Ed and Knight Al don't get into too much trouble."

"That's right! But, um… Ed and Al were captured! So Princess Winry had to save them!"

"And how did she do that?"

"She saved them by making an invention! Like a machine! And it could unlock the dungeon."

Sara smiled. She certainly was William's daughter. And hers.

"Really? How did it work?"

Winry bit her lip in concentration. "Um… you push a button that makes the gears turn and then it, and then it makes a new key that would match the door!"

"What a smart invention!"

"Yep! I think I'm gonna build it tomorrow," Winry said seriously.

"That sounds wonderful, darling. But it's getting late now; time for you to change into your pajamas."

"Buuuut Mommmmmmy, I'm not sleepy!"

"I know you're not, sweetheart."

Winry huffed, crossing her arms. "I'm not going to sleep."

She had definitely inherited her stubbornness from her father's side.

"Alright, honey, but at least change into your pajamas… you don't have to actually sleep."

Sara put the book aside and pulled back the covers while Winry changed. Winry jumped in her bed.

"Still not sleepy," she said cheekily.

"Yes, but I am," Sara said, tucking Winry in and planting a kiss on her forehead. "Good night, Winry. I love you."

"I love you too, Mommy."

**xxxxxxxx**

"Mommmmmmyyy, read us a story! Daddy's not doing it right!"

"Give me a minute!" Winry put down the small mechanical train of Adam's she had been repairing and climbed the stairs up to the room she had slept in when she was younger.

She smiled. Ed was sitting on the bed, Sara in his lap, and Adam sitting next to him. Her favorite storybook as a child was being held by her four-year-old daughter.

"He's not reading it right," Sara whined.

"That's because he's actually reading the words," Adam said in a know-it-all tone.

"It's OK, sweetheart. Daddy's just not very creative. I'll tell you a story," Winry comforted, coming over to the bed.

"How was I supposed to know?" Ed complained. "These stories are all ridiculous anyway. They don't make any sense."

"Yeah!" Adam exclaimed.

"They're fairy tales, dear. They're supposed to be a little silly. Here..." She took the book from Sara and 'read':

"Once upon a time there were two very adorable children. Unfortunately, the two children did not have a very smart daddy, because he did not know how to tell a good story, even though he's been a father for five years. The end."

Adam and Sara giggled. Ed shot her an annoyed look.

"Give me that." He 'read', "Once upon a time there was an amazingly talented alchemist. But then he made a very silly mistake and decided to marry an extremely cranky girl named…"

Winry bonked him on the head before he could finish. "Alright, I think that's enough stories for tonight."

"But Mooooooommmmmmmyyyyyy," Adam and Sara whined in perfect unison.

"I'll take this one, you can tuck that one in," Ed said in a business-like tone, picking Adam up.

"Sounds like a plan," Winry smiled.

"No faiiiirrr!" Adam whined.

"I'm not sleepy," Sara pouted.

"I know you're not, but I am," Winry said, kissing her daughter's forehead. "Goodnight, Sara. I love you."

"I love you too, Mommy."


End file.
